Work Day 2010

It has been a cold and wet spring. Mother Nature is just going to give in and let us have a real spring. Every once in a while she will throw in a teaser, one beautiful day. It just so happened that one of those days was our annual family work day on the farm. It couldn't have been any better. Sure made the work fun. With many hands, big and small, we be accomplished a lot. Lawns were mowed and raked, trees trimmed, ditches cleaned and burned, raspberries cleaned and weeded, trains riden, food eaten and the big project, putting a new roof on the cabin were all a success. The men got to show off their power tool skills, sniff the fumes from the chain saw, and show off how high they could run up the side of the cabin.

Gathering the perfect peice of wood for the fire. It's what we do, gather up stray twigs, raspberry canes, and other stuff, and at the end of the day we burn them. If the weather is good enough we roast hotdogs and marshmellows. It's the icing on the day.

Up to the forest is a swing, hung from one of the tall trees. It's the highlight of those (young and old children) who go up there, swinging high and low. B though it would be interesting to lick the pole. Luckily it was summer so his tongue didn't stick.

The chimney cap spends more time on the ground than on the chimney. Why? B was fascinated with it, we told him it was hat to protect his head when he rad into trees. He tried it out.

Definitely my favorite men on the job. S and P were pondering the next step of the roofing project.

Big kids use the swing up to the forest, little ones at the house.

N-N wanted to help. He latched on to some clippers that were almost bigger than him and tackled a bush. Needless to say, the bush got the better of him. He walked away leaving the clippers behind.

K & P taking a break.

Grandma watching the progress and making sure no one got hurt.

Loaded with tools and supplies, heading up to the forest

C takes a slide break

K is gloved and ready to work, obviously the gloves are a bit big but he didn't care. He was part of the crew.

They didn't fit R any better.

C and K peeking out from the caboose

Lunch break (Cindy Lee, it was delicious)

All aboard, the work is done and now the real fun begins.

Train rides for everyone

One of the highlights is the old tractor. Everyone likes to drive it. Only problems was it just wouldn't run properly. After some real frustrations, they put it away. The next day S put some gas in it and it ran like a charm. If only we had known that was it's problem.

W & M catching their ride

Off to the left you can see the flames of the bonfire. It doesn't take log for it to burn down to perfect coals.

It's always a lot of work, but when we work together it's almost fun.